


High Tides

by SapphireOceans



Series: Changing Tides [1]
Category: The Ingo Chronicles - Helen Dunmore
Genre: Family, Fantasy, Friendship, Mermaids, Multi, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-22
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-27 14:13:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5051539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphireOceans/pseuds/SapphireOceans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's almost two years since Sapphire and Conor made the Crossing of Ingo, and there have been quite a few changes in the Trewhella household. But with a new sibling on the way, Ervy's old allies on the move, all combined with Sapphire's new, confusing feelings for Faro, it seems like more changes are yet to come. And Sapphire has a really bad feeling that her two worlds may be set to collide...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Well here goes. This is one of the first fanfics I wrote, and it was first published five years ago on fanfic.net. As the Ingo category on here is pretty sparse, and since I also use this site quite a lot now I though I'd post it here too, after neatening it up a little. If people read it, I'll keep updating, I guess XD. Thanks for checking it out, much love,
> 
> Sapphire

**Chapter One**

Our lives change like the tides. Each of us is a beach, washed clean and free of debris by each rising of the waves, slowly worn away and shaped by their persistence. Life shapes the coves and inlets of our stories, wearing down some parts, building up others. There is sunshine and there are storms in equal measure, but season is always different, each drop of rain new. Life is always changing, but there are some things you cling onto, like a drowning sailor clings to driftwood.  
    The fluttery March wind pulls a tendril of hair comes loose from my damp ponytail, sending it into my eyes and disrupting my thoughts. I bat it away as I push open the gate and shut it behind me, my soggy socks squelching slightly in my trainers. The Friday afternoon is warm and lazy, which is unusual for March; but then again we are apparently in the middle of a heat wave. The garden looks really alive this year; there is a line of michaelmas daisies growing by the gate and Roger has done a really good job with the vegetable patch this year. Roger. I sigh as I push open the cottage door. If I have to have a step-dad, I’d rather it was Roger than a stranger, but it’s weird to see him sitting in Dads place at the table, in Dads armchair, and even weirder to think of him sleeping next to Mum in Dads bed...no, actually, that is something I am not ever, ever going to think about.  
    “Sapphy, you’re home!” Mum waddles towards me and gives me a hug, which is no easy feat due to the large bump full of baby sticking out of her.  
    “Hi Mum.”  
    “This little blighter’s been kicking again!” Mum says, smiling fondly down at her stomach. I give an uneasy smile. I remember the times I used to plead with Mum and Dad to have another baby. Well, I guess now, in a roundabout way, I have my wish. But it’s strange to think that the baby won’t be a Trewhella. It’ll be a Grayson, like Roger. And now, I suppose, Mum. She’s been Jennie Grayson since she married Roger last year, not Jennie Trewhella anymore.  
    Roger himself walks in from the sitting room, running a hand through his ever so slightly greying hair. “Hey Sapphire,” he says, giving me a friendly smile, which I manage to return.  
    “Hey Roger.”  
    He absently leans in to ruffle my hair affectionately, and blinks in surprise when he’s greeted with what only can be described as a squelch.  
    “Hey, you’re soaking! What have you been doing; swimming with your clothes on?” he asks with a jokey grin, withdrawing his now rather damp hand. He’s a little too close to the truth. I laugh nervously. My clothes have mostly dried in the sun, but my jeans are still a little damp, and the ends of my hair are dripping.  
    “Erm...no. I just…go a little bit wet exploring rock pools. I’ll go and take a shower. Get the salt out of my hair,” I babble, trying to make a swift escape. I turn and practically race upstairs, managing to knock into a small bookshelf on the landing. Cursing softly, I drop to my knees and begin to pick them up, but I freeze when I hear Roger’s next words.  
    “She spends too much time down that cove. It’s not healthy,” he says in an ever so slightly worried voice.  
    “Oh Roger, not this again!” That’s Mum speaking.  
    “But what does she actually do down there? She’s there for hours. You can’t tell me that she’s swimming all that time…”  
    “Roger, you know she loves the sea.”  
    “I know Jennie, and so do I. But it’s not…well…normal behaviour, exactly, is it? How many other sixteen year old girls do you know who spend half of their life on their own? I just feel that maybe she should be out with her friends a little bit more. I’m just worried, I guess…worried she’s to secluded and not getting enough interaction with others her own age.”  
    “She does go out some times...she has Rainbow...”  
    “I know, and Rainbow’s a lovely, lovely girl. But I’m still worried Jennie. I mean, I know she’s not my daughter, but I still care about her. And I just think she should get her head out of the clouds now and then, have some fun…”  
    I’ve heard enough. I put the last of the books back on the shelf and make my way to the bathroom, turning on the shower. I know that Roger’s only looking out for me, trying to take care of me, but something about the way he’s pushing his nose in just…irritates me. Gets under my skin. There’s no one else I’d rather have for a stepdad, but I do wish he wasn’t quite so interested in my comings and goings. I used be worried about Roger taking Dads place, but they are so different that most of the time it doesn’t seem that way. It’s just sometimes, when I’m in the kitchen making tea, I expect to hear a different set of footsteps coming up the path, an different voice singing in the garden. And it’s then I remember, and then that it hurts. It’s times like that that it feels like Dad has been erased. It’s not that we don’t get on. Roger is a good bloke, I like him well enough. He’s good for Mum. I know that she, for one, is hoping that when the baby’s born, we’ll all feel like a proper family.  
    The baby.  
    The. Baby. Two small words paired with the rather large prominence now protruding from my mother. My mother. I suppose sibling rivalry is natural, but still. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’m not longer going to be the youngest or if it’s the fact that it’s Roger’s...I mean, yeah, he’s cool but he’s not…not Dad. Although I suppose that now Dad’s truly gone, I should probably be moving on. It’s just hard remembering all of those times when I begged Mum and Dad to have another baby, a little someone that I could help teach to ride a bike and how to climb down to the cove. I suppose I’m going to have that now, but it’s not…the same.  
    I sigh, pushing wet tendrils out of my face as I roughly rub shampoo into my hair. My new sibling is an issue that I will have to deal with in the future. Right now, the main issue I have to deal with is Roger wanting to know exactly  what I’m doing down at the cove. And the main problem here is that I’m not technically in the cove when I say that I’m going down to the cove…  
    I gulp slightly and turn the heat in the shower up a notch. The water is warm as it pounds over my body, washing the seaweed from my hair. But somehow, a little nervous part of me still feels very cold.

It’s dinner time when I come down. I’ve changed and I hope that Roger doesn’t notice; he’s getting suspicious enough, after all. Calm down Sapphire, you’re being paranoid. You changed because you fell in the rock pool, remember?  I slump into a chair at the table next to Conor.  
    “Hey there, stranger,” he says, raising an eyebrow, “Where have you been all day?”  
    “Oh…out and about. Being at one with nature and the universe and all that…” I say, adopting a wise, sage expression.  
    He looks sceptical, but since Mum and Roger are in the vicinity, he doesn’t bring up the matter of Ingo. “Well, if you’re done ‘being at one with the universe’, do you think you’d like to go to Mal’s eighteenth tomorrow?”  
    “Huh?” I reply intelligently. “I dunno. Maybe.”   
    I didn’t even realise that it was Mal’s birthday tomorrow. Conor’s far more in touch with all the Air goings on than I am; he hardly ever comes to Ingo these days…although I suppose it must be lonelier for him now that Elvira’s gone. I think, if he had his way, I wouldn’t be going to Ingo either, not in term time. He’s beginning to worry about my GCSE’s, asking if I need any coaching or help revising…in fact, I think he’s worrying more than I am. I’m trying to block them out at the moment, in the hope that if I don’t think about them, they’re not going to happen. I wish. But still, it’s not like I’ve been bunking off of school to swim around in Ingo. I mainly go at the weekends, now, and after school sometimes when I don’t have much homework…or can’t be bothered to do my homework. But still, Ingo’s not something you can easily schedule…  
    “Saph?”  
    I blink and look up at Conor. “Oh. Sorry. Zoned out.”  
    “Too absorbed with ‘being at one with nature’, I suppose.” He rolls his eyes. “I was just saying that he said to ask if you were. He’d like you to be there.”  
    “That was nice of him,” I mumble, ever so slightly touched that Mal wanted to try and include me on Conor’s behalf. He’s a nice enough guy, although I still cringe with guilt every time I think about that moment I snapped at him for calling me Saph. Yeah. That was awkward. But I was only twelve at the time! We can’t all be held accountable for the actions of our twelve year old selves. “I’ll see if Rainbow’s going. What’s for dinner?”  
    “Spaghetti Bolognese! Justa lika my mama maka!”  Roger announces in an awful Italian accent, waltzing in and setting our bowls on the table.  
    “Great! Thanks Roger, you do brill spaghetti!” Conor says enthusiastically, digging in.  
    “I didn’t put any meat balls on yours Sapphire; you’ve got cheese instead. Is that okay?” he asks, giving me a warm smile.  
    “Sure, thanks Roger,” I say, returning it. I turned vegetarian again last year, much to Mum’s exasperation. She thought that I grew out of it aged seven.  
    “Jennie, dinner!” Roger calls to her, and she lumbers out of the front room.  
    “Get my stool please Sapphy,” she gasps as she drops into her chair, “My ankles are swelling up again...”  
    I clamber to my feet and dart into the front room, snagging the stool from in front of the sofa.      
    “Thanks Sapphy. God, you get out of practise after sixteen years...maybe I’m too old for this...”  
    “Give over Mum, you’re only thirty nine!” Conor puts in quickly.  
    “You still look great, Jen,” Roger adds.  
    They give me a pointed look and I hurriedly nod enthusiastically. “Not a day over twenty five.”  
    She waves a hand. “Flatterers...” she says, but she’s smiling. “Lovely pasta, Roger,” she adds, tucking in. I watch her for a moment with a fond smile. It’s not just the baby that’s changed Mum. After she got back from Australia, she announced that she’d found a part time course in Heath Therapy at Cornwall College. She’d always wanted to be a nurse, but couldn’t because of her school grades; however, her grades were high enough for her to get onto a foundation degree program at the St Austell campus. She drives up there everyone now and then, although recently they’ve just been emailing her the work, due to the baby. I’m really proud of her; she’s finally fulfilling her aspirations. The only problem is that she now wants me to fulfil mine. Which would be great if I knew what mine were.  
    I start on my own pasta, but before I can eat another forkful, Roger speaks.  
    “So...Sapphire. Have fun down at the cove did you?”  
    I nod looking down at my plate. Oh God, here we go. “Mmh.”  
    “What did you do down there? Did you go swimming?”  
    “Something like that...”  
    “And..er...how’s Rainbow?”  
    I eat some more pasta. “She’s good.”  
    Roger rolls his eyes at my lack of correct grammar, but lets it slide. “When was the last time you two met up?”  
    “Friday. I went to meet her on Porthgwidden Beach after school. And I called her this morning…” my eyes narrow. “Why?”  
    “Well....we-” Here Mum elbows him sharply. “Okay, I was thinking that it maybe it would be fun if you…saw a little bit more of your friends? That...you know...maybe…you should go out a little bit more?”  
    I play with my remaining spaghetti, twirling it around my fork. Okay. Okay. I can deal with this like a mature adult, and not get stroppy and take things the wrong way and start yelling. He is just trying to help because he cares. I take a deep breath, and look up at Roger, fixing a smile on my face.  
    “It’s okay Roger, I’m actually going to a party tomorrow. You don’t need to worry about me, really. Everything’s fine.”  
    Conor grins, almost triumphantly. “Great! I’ll call Mal; he’ll be thrilled!”  
    I roll my eyes at him and wolf down the last of my pasta. “Please may I get down now?”  
    Mum nods and I grab my bowl and carrying it to the sink, before racing upstairs and collapsing onto my bed. I lie there for a moment, exhaling slowly. Great. A party. With dancing. And probably alcohol. And boys. Those alien creatures. How am I going to get through this? I can’t dance, I don’t really drink, and I do not know how to talk to or deal with boys that aren’t either related to me or that have a tail. This is going to be embarrassing. I raise my head slightly as I hear footsteps on the stairs, followed by a small rap on my bedroom door.  
    “I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition!” a voice calls from the landing, and I have to smile ever so slightly at the reference.  
    “NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!” I call back, and Conor’s grinning face pokes into the room.  
    “Come in you muppet,” I say, rolling my eyes, and he walks in, sitting down on the bed next to me with a thump.  
    “So…Roger, hey?” He looks at me, his brown eyes anxious. “He seems pretty worried about you. Do you think he’s going to try and find out what you’re really doing down at the cove?”  
    “Come on, he’s not that nosey. It’ll be fine,” I reassure him, trying to dispel the doubts in my own head.  
    “I hope so Saph,” Conor says, still looking concerned. “I really do. If humans found out about Ingo…well. it wouldn’t be good. Or he might just think he’s insane. But that also wouldn’t be good…”  
    “Conor, stop over analysing the situation. He won’t find out, so just forget it, okay? I’ll be careful.”  
    “Fine…” he sighs, before a wicked gleam manifests itself in his eyes. “Moving onto a different subject…what’re you going to wear to the party?”  
    I snatch up a pillow and begin to bludgeon him with it in reply.  
    “What’re you doing?” he cries, raising his arms in an attempt at defence as I thump him.  
    “You got me into this with your whole party mess!” I wail, showing no mercy.  
    “OW! Gerrof! You said you’d go!”  
    “Only. ‘Cause. Roger.” I punctuate each word with a blow, “Put. Me. Under. Pressure!”  
    "It’ll be fun-OW!”  
    “I hate parties!”  
    “It’s a beach party...”  
    I lower the pillow. “Really?”  
    “That stopped you, didn’t it?” He snatches the pillow off me and begins to hit me with it.  
    “Gerrof me! Alright! I’ll go! Now stop!”  
    “Nope.” He grins annoyingly. “I don’t feel like stopping. I want revenge...”  
    “Noooooooo!” I scream as he starts tickling me. “Gooooooood! No, please, stop!” I begin sobbing with helpless laughter. Mum bursts-well, waddles- in.  
    “Oh for God’s sake!” she cries when she sees us. “I thought one of you were being murdered! How old are you two? No one would ever think you might be heading off to Exeter this time next year Conor...”  
    “Make...him...” I gasp, “Make...him...stop!”  
    “Honestly! You are such a pair of toddlers.”  
    “MUM! CONOR! OFF! ME! NOW! PLEASE!” I shriek, laughing so hard that I think my head may be about to explode.  
    “Okay, okay! Get off of her, Conor.”  
    He finally releases me and I lie there on the bed thankfully, gasping for breath. “I will wreak my revenge!” I cry as soon as I have enough air, waving a fist, arch-villain style.  
    “That’s what they all say,” Conor says, grinning. “Now if you’re quite finished detaining me you’re your villainous games, then I must depart.” He turns and climbs up the ladder to his room, probably to complete some horrifically complicated Further Maths homework due in on Monday. Mum sighs, rolls her eyes and leave the room, beginning the long, difficult decent downstairs.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Squeaks at kudos* Hello terrifying people of AO3! I hope you like <3 *Hides*

**_Chapter Two_ **

    “Sapphire?” Roger calls as he walks into the kitchen, looking around for the familiar head of tangled dark hair.  
    “She’s gone to the cove,” Jennie replies from the other room.  
    “Oh, right,” he says, trying not to sound disapproving. He knows it’s not his place to say what her children should and shouldn’t be doing, but it’s hard after getting to know them over the last five years. Indeed, he almost looks on them as children of his own, or favourite nieces and nephews at least; not that he’d tell Sapphire that. He knows she’s still coping with her father’s death, and doesn’t want to do anything to stir up any feelings of grief or resentment…he doesn’t want to try and usurp a place that isn’t his. But nevertheless, he still wants to have a positive relationship with her, the kind he has with Conor as a sort of friendly uncle and confidante, some kind of authority figure who can still be her friend.  
    “Why did you want her?” Jennie says, emerging from the living room, brushing her honey-brown hair from her eyes.  
    He shrugs, feeling ever so slightly embarrassed about his reasoning, like a child presenting  a crayon drawing to a parent and hoping that they’ll like it and see that he’s trying his best. “Well, I’ve haven’t seen her much recently, and I wanted to know if she fancied a boat trip today, before Mal’s party.”  
    “Aw, that would be lovely.” Jennie beams, and he feels his own lips twisting into a big smile, still hardly able to believe she didn’t run away screaming from his at the altar or something of the like. Hardly able to believe that this caring, intelligent, beautiful woman agreed to spend her life with him. “She only left a minute or so ago; I’m sure you’d be able to catch her up.”  
    “I guess I’ll just pop down to the cove and give her a shout,” he says, shrugging, still smiling like an idiot.  
    “Do us a favour and take her inhaler down to her for me Roger? She’s had that cold, and it makes her asthma play up, and you know how I worry...”  
    “Sure, Jen.” He picks up the small blue plastic asthma pump and kisses her gently before walking out of the door. He follows the track down to the cove with brisk strides, and soon he sees her, long hair blowing in the wind before she slips down the hidden path through the brambles, bushes and nettles.  
    “Sapphire!” he calls, but she doesn’t hear him; she just keep on walking through the waist high grass and foliage. He jogs to catch up, but isn’t even halfway there before she begins to climb over the cliff edge, towards the golden stretch of sand below and out of his sight line. He picks up his speed, but his shoelace tangles around his ankle, almost tripping him. He stops to tie it, and by the time he finishes she must have already reached the beach. He starts moving along the track once more, and finally reaches the greenery, following the same path that she did. But by the time he walks over to the cliff edge himself, and looks around, it’s too late. He blinks, hardly able to believe his eyes. She’s gone.

    “So where are we going Faro?” I ask, as the weak, but warm current tosses my hair around my face.  
    “There are some caves I wanted to show you; you can’t get to them from land,” Faro says loftily, idly wafting his tail, his hair floating around his face. “So very few _humans_ have visited them, only the ones with _boats_  and _diving gear_.”  
    I roll my eyes, poking his arm. “Don’t tell me; divers should not come into Ingo?”  
    “You read my mind,” he grins, exposing his perfect white teeth. I hate the fact his teeth are so perfect. My dentist is still saying that I might need a brace soon.  So unfair!  
    “No; I just know you very well.” I stick out my tongue.  
    He laughs, before sticking his tongue back out at me. “I know you better.”  
    “You do not!”  
    “I do. For example, I know right now that you are suppressing feelings of grumpiness. Tell me why you’re grumpy, Sapphire.”  
    I roll my eyes. “It’s nothing. No reason.”  
    “Is it the diver?”  
    “No! Well. Yes. Kind of.”  
    His eyebrows are beginning a trek up his forehead. “No-well-yes-kind of? What a strange, nonsensical answer. Just like one of your human politicians, Sapphire.” He shoots me a sly look, as if to say; ‘Check me out! I probably know more about human politics than you do!’  
The sad thing is that he probably does.  
    “Well…it’s just…Roger’s a nice guy. I mean, a really nice guy. He makes my Mum happy, and now he’s having a baby with her and he’s nice to me and gets on really well with Conor…but…”  
    “But?” The teasing eyes grow unusually gentle.  
    “But I just…miss Dad.” I can feel the tears building up in my throat, but I refuse to let them out. “It’s stupid. I should have moved on. But…I don’t know.”  
    “It’s not stupid.” His hand brushes mine gently, and for a moment I feel a tingle of something rush through me before it’s gone. “Of course you miss your father. I know what it’s like to miss someone.”  
    “How is Elvira?” I ask. I haven’t seen her in over a year. Neither has Conor. In fact, come to think of it, I can’t even remember the last time he went to Ingo; it’s all homework and A-levels and AS results and University offers, as well as the odd party.  
    He shrugs dully. “Loving life in the North.” He manages to force a smile. “I’m happy for her, of course.”  
    “But you miss her.”  
    He shrugs again before abruptly changing the subject. “You’re worrying about something else, other than your father. I can tell. Don’t try to hide things from me, Sapphire; I am the great mind ninja.”  
    How the hell did Faro find out what a ninja is? I decide it’s better not to ask.  
    “Roger’s beginning to wonder what I do down at the cove.” I sigh. “He’s beginning to ask questions.”  
    I feel him go very still for a moment. “Things have not been well in Ingo either.” He admits after a long pause. “Some of Ervy’s old followers…well, let’s say they’re becoming very vocal. Funny how soon people forget that dolphin and Mer blood was spilt that night, because of Ervys.” He almost spits the name, his voice bitter.  
    I bite my lip, glancing up at him. “Ingo will heal, Faro. Eventually. One way or another.”  
    He tries to smile, but I sense that it takes an effort. “Of course it will, Sapphire,” he says finally. “It’s just idiotic people like his followers that just…” he sighs. “It just feels like every time we make a move forwards, people are pushing us back.”  
    “Faro…”  
    He shakes his head. “We’re here. Come on, Sapphire. Let’s think of lighter things.” He takes my hand, and for a moment the tingle returns, a thrill of something not unlike fear rushes through me, but then it’s gone, and it’s just, me and Faro, pulling out of the current.  
    Just two friends.  
    “Two good friends,” Faro corrects, picking up on my last thought.  
“Two best friends,” I say tentatively. He nods and smiles, glancing down at our wrists. I follow his gaze, and smile as well when I see our _deubleks_. Linking us together; an inseparable bond.  
    “Let’s go,” Faro says, breaking me out of my thoughts. Still holding my hand, he pulls me along towards the caves. I smile happily, not just because of our exhilarating speed. But because holding Faro’s hand makes me feel like I’m home.  

 Roger jumps the last few feet onto the sand, and runs out into the centre of the cove. He looks around, searching in vain for a girl with long dark hair.  
    “Sapphire?” he calls, his heart thudding in his chest like a drum, panic beginning to rush through him. What if she’s hurt? Or been washed out to sea and drowned? Worry, a sickly twisted feeling in his stomach, is growing for the girl. And for Jennie…what would her daughter’s disappearance do to Jennie? She’s  already lost so much….But no, he mustn’t think like that. He would have seen her if she’d gone into the sea, wouldn’t he? She’s a strong swimmer…she’d have struggled. There are no currents inside the cove either. He peers into caves and behind boulders. He searches until he is positive that there is no one there.  “She must have gone back. Slipped past me.” He mutters to himself as he heads back up the cliff after one final search.  “She can’t have just...disappeared...”  

I lie on the rocks in the sun with Faro. My clothes are slowly drying out in the heat (apparently this is the hottest March since 1967) and, with a bit of luck, so will my hair, and I will be able to avoid any more awkward questions. Faro slides off the rock, into the water, to refresh his tail, before jumping back up next to me. We look up at the clouds above us, and I smile. There is nowhere else I’d rather be than here with him.  
    “Watch the clouds,” he says, “You can see a storm being born.”  
    “Will it rain then, Faro?” Hope leaps through me- if it does, it’ll surely be too wet for the party...  
    “No. The wind will carry it far away. It’s only young now.”  
    I look up at the clouds in question.  
    “A baby storm.”  
    “You could call it that. Now Sapphire, tell me about this party you’re worrying about.”  
    I groan. “I hate parties. Too many people. They play annoying music you have to dance to- and I can’t do ‘cool dancing’.”  
    “You like the midsummer bonfires.”  
    We’re sharing memories now. “Yes, but that’s different.”  
    He nods. “Maybe it won’t be as bad as you think...”  
    “Hmmm...”  
    He laughs. “Who’s this ‘Mal’ anyway?”  
    “Friend of Conor’s.” I let an image of Mal drift into my mind.  
    “Does he still do that annoying accent?”  
    I laugh. “No, he stopped that, thankfully.”  
    Faro grins. “Good. I can see how that would get irritating…but really, just because he called you ‘Saph’?”  
    “I was freezing cold and half drowned! And twelve! I’m allowed to snap at people when I’m half drowned and aged twelve!”  
    He laughs again. “I’m sure you must have been terrifying.”  
    I stick my tongue out at him. For a moment, I wonder how many other teenagers there are right now lying side by side with one of the Mer, how many with the same blood as me and Conor, who have stumbled across gateways to hidden worlds, how many there are right now struggling to walk the thin line between Air and Ingo, Norvys and Moryow.  
    “More than just you and your brother,” Faro says softly, glancing over at me. “Many more.”  
    I close my eyes, sighing softly. “People keep asking me what I want to do with my life. If I want to go to University, or Medical School or whatever. Maybe I should be tracking down others like us, others with mixed blood.”  
    He takes my hand and squeezes it. “That’s going to be quite a big task, Sapphire.”  
    “I know.” I sigh softly. “But I could at least make a start? Not right now, not with exams coming up, but later, maybe? In the summer?”  
    He nods slowly. “It’s an idea. But you’re still young, Sapphire. Don’t totally devote yourself to this. Not yet.”  
    I sigh. “Okay. And yeah, I suppose it would be harder for a sixteen year old to roam the country looking for others with merblood than a twenty one year old or something.”  
    “I’ll help,” he says, squeezing my hand, before winking. “I will aid you in your noble quest anyway I can.”  
    I laugh. “Well thank you, Prince Charming.” I poke his arm and he grins at me. I grin back, before I catch sight of the sun in the sky and sit bolt upright, eyes wide.  
    “What?” Faro asks, frowning.  
    “Rainbow. She’s coming round to mine...What time is it?” I look around, as if hoping for a giant clock to suddenly manifest itself in the sky.  
    “Er...”  
    “In that case, I’d better be getting back.” I sigh, and stand up on the rocks. “See you later Faro.”  
    “Bye Sapphire.” He grins at me and slips off the rocks into the sea. I begin to make my way back across the rocks to the beach. When I reach the cove, for a second I look back. Faro is still there, watching me go. I wave to him and he waves back, before diving back below the waves and out of sight.


End file.
